Director, Transformation and Operations

Braven Inc.; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 92,000 - 114,900; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited vacation time

401K matching

Health insurance coverage for dependents

Paid parental leave

One-month sabbatical after 4 years

$25,000 lifetime Carrot benefits for family-building

Job summary

Braven Inc. seeks a Director of Transformation and Operations to help achieve their mission of empowering college students. This position involves leading key transformation initiatives such as AI adoption and process innovation, with a focus on collaboration and strategic planning.

Ideal candidates will have significant experience in strategic operations, exceptional communication skills, and a passion for education and nonprofit work. This full-time role is based in Chicago, with flexibility for remote work and in-person collaboration three days a week.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of strategic operations experience with proven project management skills.
• Exceptional ability to lead cross-functional teams and synthesize information.
• Experience in the education or nonprofit sector or in consulting is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead and launch special initiatives translating vision into execution.
• Manage diverse teams toward shared outcomes without direct authority.
• Develop internal systems for gathering and analyzing market intelligence.

Skills

Strategic operations experience

Cross-functional collaboration

Project management

Market intelligence

Effective communication

Education

Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent

Tools

Asana

Salesforce

Trello

Zoom

Job description

Job Title: Director, Transformation and Operations

Team: Office of the Chief Executive Officer

Location: In-Person strong preference for Chicago (IL), also possible; Atlanta (GA), Newark (NJ), or New York City (NYC)

Employment Type: Full-time

FLSA Classification: Exempt

Start Date: ASAP

About Braven

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising college students to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

We work with higher education and employer partners to offer a life-changing experience that begins with a semester-long course for college students, followed by support that lasts through graduation.

Together, our ambition is to help rebuild the middle class and revitalize the American Dream.

To learn more, take a look at Braven’s Jobs Report.

About the Role

In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80,000-100,000 Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring a Director, Transformation and Operations, to join the newly formed Transformation team. Transformation is charged with ensuring that we are seeing around corners and prepared to maximize the strategic opportunities in our future. Your role is to take the ideas that matter most and make them real. You'll lead the design and execution of key transformation initiatives — currently AI adoption, market intelligence, and process innovation for quality at scale, three of our largest organizational risks at our current inflection point in growth. While you don’t manage anyone directly, you will manage across many internal stakeholders, and your ability to move people toward shared outcomes without direct authority is critical to your success. You're energized by ambiguity, you think in systems, and you genuinely love figuring out what "cutting edge" means for an organization that is paving the way. You enjoy bringing structure to ambiguous problems without flattening the complexity, and you know when to slow down and define the question before rushing to answer it.

The person in this role thrives in a startup environment where job descriptions are starting points, not ceilings — willing to roll up your sleeves across whatever the mission needs.

This role is a part of the Office of the Chief Executive Officer and reports directly to the Head of Transformation.

What You’ll Do

Lead, Design, and Launch Special Initiatives (50%)

• Create strategic plans that translate vision into execution for special initiatives owned by the Transformation team (inclusive of multi-year roadmaps, short-term project plans, stakeholder communications maps, risk mitigation strategies, learnings from market intelligence, etc.)
• Synthesize insights and recommendations for senior leaders to guide ongoing strategy
• Manage the execution of a wide variety of teammates towards success, adapting strategies and frameworks as needed
• Initial projects within your scope will include ensuring we have enterprise-wide quality systems as we scale, and strong execution and enablement of our holistic approach to AI
• Build internal buy-in with evolving and cross-cutting projects, meeting people where they are, and making the unfamiliar feel approachable, for any special initiatives
• Serve as an internal resource for "what's possible" — translating data and ideas into practical, mission-aligned use cases we can actually act on
• Embrace the reality that we're figuring this out as we go — and help the team feel steady while we do
• Lead and influence cross-functional teams in a matrixed environment (i.e., teams will not directly report into this role) to bring initiatives to life, fostering a culture of excellence, continuous learning, collaboration, and innovation

Operations Infrastructure & Project Management (30%)

• Create and own the project plans behind our transformation initiatives while building timelines, setting milestones, tracking dependencies, and keeping cross-functional work moving forward
• Turn big-picture organizational priorities into specific, sequenced actions with real owners and real deadlines, and follow up on them without oversight from your manager
• Build and improve our team’s operating infrastructures while increasing process efficiency, developing new processes, and training others in these areas
• Create lightweight but durable operating systems: the trackers, templates, and check-in rhythms that give a small team visibility into a lot of moving parts
• Ensure these integrate with and streamline/simplify organizational processes, vs. create additional complexity
• Flag risks and potential blockers early; bring proposed solutions, not just problems
• Coordinate internal teammates and external collaborators toward shared goals — without relying on formal authority to get things done
• Develop high-quality memos, briefings, and presentation materials to support executive-level decision-making and external stakeholder engagement
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to enhance our nimbleness as we grow and ensure alignment with broader organizational strategic objectives

Research and Analysis (Market Intelligence) (20%)

• Develop and maintain systems for gathering and organizing strategic market intelligence so findings are accurate, accessible, and updated regularly
• Ensure a variety of voices/stakeholders internally and externally, especially ones that might be overlooked or seemingly irrelevant, are incorporated
• Monitor and analyze trends, regulatory changes, and technological advancements across sectors, including workforce development, AI in higher education, and employer expectations, to identify positioning opportunities and threats for Braven
• Track what peer organizations, edtech organizations, university career centers, and employers are doing; codify what that means for our work, and identify white space where we can lead
• Synthesize findings from articles, podcasts, research, newsletters, conferences, and partner conversations into crisp, actionable briefings for leadership and staff
• Connect macro trends — including AI in recruiting, shifting employer expectations, and changing student needs — to near-term decisions Braven can make today
• Lead efforts to identify, evaluate, and integrate AI tools and partnerships from a market intelligence and positioning lens, in coordination with Systems and Product
• Translate complex data into clear strategic insights with actionable recommendations for senior leadership; deliver concise, impactful reports/presentations to key stakeholders
• Serve as a trusted advisor to internal stakeholders on competitive positioning, offering recommendations grounded in evidence
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent
• 5+ years of strategic operations experience with the proven ability of managing complex projects and lead others to outcomes

Preferred Qualifications

• Exceptional ability to collaborate and work in cross-functional teams, ideally in a matrixed, cross-functional environment or scaling consulting or mission-driven organization
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to draft clear, audience-appropriate communications quickly and with minimal direction
• Exceptional ability to synthesize information, identify the most important thread, and move forward without needing every detail resolved
• Experience in the education or nonprofit sector, or in consulting
• Comfort and fluency with AI tools (e.g., Claude) and a curiosity about how technology can drive mission-aligned work; ability to navigate myriad tech systems (e.g., Asana/Trello, Salesforce, Zoom)
• Track record of operating in ambiguous environments and creating structure where little exists
• Demonstrated commitment to building strong and welcoming cultures that help to develop others
• Exemplification of Braven’s core values
• Experience that has informed your belief in Braven’s mission and has prepared you to work with, or for, Braven’s student Fellow population

Please know that no one ever meets 100% of the preferred qualifications. If much of this describes you, we encourage you to apply.

Work Demands

• Ability to work in-person in Atlanta (GA), Chicago (IL), Newark (NJ), or New York City (NYC)
• Travel 15-20% of the time

Additional Requirements

• Authorized to work in the U.S.
• Braven doesn’t offer employment visa sponsorship

Application & Interview Process

While the interview process may vary slightly, the general process will be:

• Interview with Hiring Specialist
• Performance Task
• Interview with Hiring Manager
• Panel Interview with Colleagues and Peers

Compensation and Benefits

Braven offers competitive base salaries based on the midpoint of the market among not-for-profit organizations of similar size, with opportunities for salary growth over time. We believe in compensating staff members fairly in relation to each other, their qualifications, and their impact on behalf of the organization, and take internal and external equity seriously. Given our commitment to equity, Braven does not negotiate salary offers; instead, each salary offer is determined carefully using external and internal benchmarking.

Starting salary within the range is determined by role scope and qualifications, with new hires starting at the lower end to allow for growth with performance. Braven does not base compensation on individual candidate salary expectations and is committed to maintaining internal equity. The salary ranges, by geographic market, for this role are set forth $87,200-$108,900 in Atlanta, $92,000-$114,900 in Chicago, and $101,200-$126,400 in New York City and Newark. This is based on a 50-hour work week at an hourly rate. This is a full-time, regular, non-exempt, and benefits eligible position where you will be working at 100% capacity.

Braven also provides competitive, comprehensive benefits, recognition, and career development. While Braven reserves the right to change benefits at any time, current benefits include:

• Unlimited vacation time in addition to org-wide holidays and week-long shutdowns in July and the end of the calendar year (this is a minimum of 19 days per year)
• Braven supports your path to parenthood and beyond with $25,000 in lifetime Carrot benefits for fertility, family-building, and hormonal health
• Match of your 401K contribution up to 5% of your base annual salary, starting your first full month
• Coverage of 85% of health insurance premium for employee and dependents
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave
• A one-month paid sabbatical after 4 years on staff

Please note that Braven is firm in its compensation philosophy; therefore, only candidates who believe our total rewards package aligns with what they are looking for in their next opportunity are encouraged to apply.

Location

We gather in the office 3 days a week (Tuesday through Thursday) and work remotely 2 days a week (Monday and Friday). Therefore, this role requires teammates to live within commuting distance of one of our hubs: Atlanta, Chicago, New York, or Newark. We believe in the magic, connection, and collaboration that happens when people work together face-to-face, and we believe in giving people flexibility to focus, balance personal priorities, and save themselves two commutes per week.

Braven is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected factor. We encourage talented individuals of all backgrounds to apply.